Running 9x18inch wheels on S3 - advice needed on spacers

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Simplicity

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Hello all,


I am in the process of fitting my new wheels and am hoping someone might have experience of running 9x18 inch wheels on an S3. Im looking to understand if i need spacers and if i do what sizes i might need.

My wheels are 9Jx18 with an offset of et35. The tyres i will be running are 225/40/18's. I am running KW coilovers and i would ideally like the wheels to fill the arches but not to stick out at all.

I could easily wait and trial fit the wheels once the tyres are fitted as i have the std wheels still but it would be great to have the spacers here ready to fit the wheels once the tyres are on.


Thanks

Tim
 
I would say you would not need spacers on the front and maybe 10/15mm on the rears if you want them to look flush.
 
9s are easy on the rear. I run 17x9 all round with 245 rubber. The "final" offsets I run are ET15 front, ET20 rear. I only run it the strange way around because I'm running 6 pots on the front. With 225 tyres it's going to be way easier.

You could get away with ET15 or 20 on the rear and I'd say ET25 or close to it on the front to clear the struts. I can't give you ideal front offset as mine poke a little with ET15 (but never rub due to mega stiff suspension). Like I say though, with 225 tyres, it should be easier. Search for rota 9.5 as a few people are running them on here, which should give you an idea.

Here's how mine sits:

2013-04-13-02.30.59.jpg
 
I was wondering how long it would be before you posted on this Sam_ lol. Sweet looking ride.
 
Haha couldn't help myself. I'd have gone 18x9 myself if these hadn't come up so cheap.
 
There are/were a couple of guys here are running 9.5J rotas front and back. One guy has ET23 and the other guys were ET38. I think the guy running with ET23 didnt space his wheels whereas the guy running ET38 spaced his back to ~ET18 meaning that his rims stick 102.65mm from the hub (maybe a bit much for you). Mine stick out 10mm less than his.

This is what Donjons car looked like with his 9.5J rotas ET38 with what i believe are 20mm spacers front and back

donjon said:
tumblr_lw3veaIPYG1r684oso2_1280.jpg

tumblr_lw3veaIPYG1r684oso1_1280.jpg
Click to expand...

If you wanted to match his front wheel poke but with your 9.0J ET35 wheels then you would want ~23mm spacer.

My wheels below are 8.5J ET25 and i run with 10mm spacers for brake clearance



that's 10mm less pokage than Donjon's for which you would want a 13mm spacer.

Anything less than a 10mm spacer and you might be getting close to the shocks on the front.

For the rear i think somewhere between 15mm to 20mm spacer would be fine
 
Guys thank you so much for the help :)

I think i might have to be patient and wait to get the tyres fitted and then get the tape measure out. When i tried on of the front wheels it touched the strut but this was the std strut not the coilovers. Sounds like a 10/15mm spacer upfront and maybe a 20mm spacers at the rear would suit my needs but best to check first given the costs of them!!
 
Yeah if you can, I'd do a bit of trial fitting. See if you can borrow some spacers to try. That's what I ended up doing before. I had loads of sets. It's hard to do with a tape measure, sometimes you just have to guess it...
 
I can always buy slightly deeper spacers than i need, fit the wheels and then take them to a machine shop to get a few mm taken off the back if they are too thick. I really want the car to sit well with the wheels flush, I want to avoid any unneccesary interest in the car and/or wheels
 
thats true, the tyres are going to be test fitted on Sat, if they are too stretched i might move up to a 235 or even a 245.
 
Yeah I ran 225 on 8.5s and you could see a bit of stretch but nothing major. Not all tyres are equal though, so check the actual tread width of the tyres you're intending on fitting.
 
245s are pretty tight up front. See my pic ^ I had to run ET15 to clear the brakes but even with ET20 it was very close to the strut from memory. 235 might be alright.
 
Sam_ said:
Yeah I ran 225 on 8.5s and you could see a bit of stretch but nothing major.
Click to expand...

same here - nothing major, i had an officer kicking my tyres not long ago and didn't spot the stretch - he was itching to get me on something to
 
Sam

Why would you space your wheels out so far you no longer have any suspension movement on the front?

Sorry but this wheel spacer fashion thing is pointless if it makes your car slower.
your front tyres will hit the wings as soon as you turn into a corner if they are not already hard against the wing when braking

makes no sense to me at all.
 
How did you work all that out? Sure, you'll run into problems if you have a loosey goosey suspension setup but I have no issues with rubbing at any point. I'm running a pretty taught suspension setup (H&R RSS Clubsports - like KW V3s). I also run 2.5 degrees of camber (you can see in the first pic further up) so the wheel arcs in a little on compression. I am going to be getting the guards rolled and pulled next time the local shop has one of their guard pulling days but the pictures make it seem worse than it is in reality. It's only sticking out ~5-10mm and has never rubbed once.

I have to run 25mm spacers to clear the 6 pots. It wasn't a fashion statement. I'd have run 20mm if I could have done. I'll trade off having decent brakes and wider tyres over having to get the guards rolled and pulled.

Perhaps it makes sense to you now :)
 
audi upgrades
Hi Sam

all the pics i can see show at least an inch of tread poking out beyond the front arches.

you would have to run about 8 degrees of negative camber to not hit the arch lip (thats how it looks) ;)

you might have billiard table smooth tarmac in Oz which will work fine.
but if surface is like here in Uk your front wings will soon be Fubar'd :)
 
Im running rota's which are 18x9.5j all round, i have fitted 225/40/18 tyres on mine. I have 5mm spacer on front and 15mm on the rear
 
Cobra88 said:
Hi Sam

all the pics i can see show at least an inch of tread poking out beyond the front arches.

you would have to run about 8 degrees of negative camber to not hit the arch lip (thats how it looks) ;)

you might have billiard table smooth tarmac in Oz which will work fine.
but if surface is like here in Uk your front wings will soon be Fubar'd :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm telling you, in reality it's not an inch, it's barely 10mm. Believe what you like though :) Hence why I said the pictures make it seem worse.

It's very far from billiard table smooth here. It's probably worse than back in the UK. Most roads are like a medieval castle's driveway.
Anyhow, like I keep telling you, but you don't seem to listen, is it doesn't rub :laugh: :think: I doubt it would there either due to the suspension being so hard. H&R RSS Clubsports are renowned for being very rigid. And yet again, I'm going to get the fenders pulled the 5-10mm so it'll be a non issue.
 
milli said:
Im running rota's which are 18x9.5j all round, i have fitted 225/40/18 tyres on mine. I have 5mm spacer on front and 15mm on the rear
Click to expand...

........................doesn't mean anything without telling us what ET the wheels are....................
 
No problem mate. Like I say, some of the pictures made it look way worse. It definitely needs sorting though, I'll get the wings/guards pulled when I can.
 
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